University of Sydney cracks down on scandal ridden colleges

The University of Sydney has enlisted former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick to lead a joint task force empowered to clean up the culture of the university's residential colleges, after Fairfax Media reported rampant sexual misbehaviour across two of its oldest institutions.

It is understood the university is considering stripping the colleges of their land if they fail to co-operate with the investigations.

Sydney to expect a cool change

Wesley College journal identifies sexual relationships

The University of Sydney is investigating Wesley, one of its oldest colleges, after the distribution of a journal that named who hooked up with the most people.

The move to dissociate colleges from the university would be a nuclear option that would pit the university against the college's powerful alumni groups made up of the nation's top barristers, politicians and businesspeople.

The extraordinary development comes after a week of scandal where it was revealed student leaders atWesley and St Andrew's colleges publicly shamed students who they said had slept with the most people.

Elizabeth Broderick at the National Press Club. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

St Andrew's students also burnt a gay pride flag while student leaders at Wesley fostered a culture of alcohol abuse that ended with the infiltration of a brothel.

On Thursday, the University's Vice-Chancellor, Michael Spence, advised the university community of the task force.

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"These stories have been a thorn in our flesh," Dr Spence said. "I do not want to see any more of them. The Chancellor and I have invited the heads of college councils to meet with Ms Broderick to see how we can address concerns that have been legitimately raised. I am sure they will co-operate."

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Ms Broderick led four investigations into gender discrimination in the Australian Defence Force following the Skype sex scandal in 2011 and spent eight years as Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner before becoming the United Nations Special Adviser for Gender Equality.

Negotiations between the colleges and the university are expected to be tense. Three of them, St John's, St Paul's and St Andrew's, were established under acts of Parliament in the NSW colony, while Wesley was established post-federation.

All have councils that operate independently from the university making the university powerless to bring them into line without extreme action such as disaffiliating them from the university.

This week, Wesley refused to release the names of students associated with the publication of the "RackWeb", a journal that identified sexual relationships between students along with awards for "biggest pornstar" and "biggest sleaze".

The colleges have remained independent despite recommendations from the NSW Anti-Discrimination board in 2000 that they come under the university's sexual harassment policy following a spate of other scandals.

Similar calls were heard in 2009 after students at St Paul's set up a "pro-rape" Facebook page and again in 2012 after one female student nearly died after being "tried" before a crowd of seniors and pressured to down a toxic cocktail of shampoo, sour milk, dog food, Tabasco sauce and alcohol.

A second option being canvassed to bring the colleges into line is to force colleges to publish student welfare reports that could catalogue inappropriate incidents on their enrolment websites, shaming those who do not meet standards of care and using their reputations against them.

The ultimatum could set up a battle with the college's alumni, who have fiercely defended the right of their offspring to enjoy college life autonomously.

Former St Andrew's student Kendra Murphy welcomed the move. The 20-year-old arts student revealed on Wednesday that her name was publicly broadcast over the St Andrew's PA as part of a weekly tradition that outed the sexual exploits of collegians.

"It's the biggest step forward," she said. "It shows how serious this is. If Ms Broderick is able to investigate and see the claims are true then that should bring about big change."

The university is determined to offset the reputational damage from its association with the colleges as the administration seeks to protect its $600 million annual income from the international student market.

As part of that push, the University of Sydney is positioning itself as one of the sector's pioneers in sexual equality, releasing its landmark survey on harassment on campus this week as the conflict with the colleges escalated.

It is understood the university is also considering introducing a mandatory first-year "university citizenship" course for all undergraduate students, which would outline appropriate behaviour and encourage cultural diversity.